1.) Wisconsin Republicans to move all the furniture around while Dems are hiding in Illinois — If Wisconsin’s Democratic state senators thought they pulled a fast one by booking it for Illinois rather than allowing their Republican colleagues to rescind the collective bargaining privileges of public servants, they thought wrong. While twenty senators are required for a quorum on fiscal issues, and there are only 19 Republicans, “a simple majority of 17 members constitutes a quorum for other bills in the 33-seat state senate.” When Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker calls the Senate into session this week, “there is a whole legislative agenda that Republicans in the senate and assembly can start acting on that only requires simple majorities” Walker told National Review Online. “If [Dems] want to do their jobs, and have a say, they better show up.”
2.) Under-funded pensions, bad attitudes, aren’t the only problem with public sector unions — If you can read this email, and you went to public school, you should probably be on Oprah. According to a 2010 report from Cato that we are sharing with you a year later in light of what’s happening in the cheese state, “public-sector unions tend to protect poorly performing workers, they often push for larger staffing levels than required, and they discourage the use of volunteers in government activities. Further, they tend to resist the introduction of new technologies and they create a more rule-laden workplace.” While these laws my preclude teachers from negotiating their salaries apart from the collective, they don’t stop teachers from abdicating their duties in order to mob the homes of people they don’t like.
3.) Paul Krugman gets one thing right about Wisconsin — Dr. Krugman’s Sunday column about Wisconsin is mostly hot air with a side of counterintuitive pleading: If you want to maintain the value of individual rights in the face of corporate spending, you should support the power of government workers to act only as a collective, and never individually. Buried in the crap is this clear-headed line: “Some workers…are exempted from the ban; it’s as if Mr. Walker were flaunting the political nature of his actions.” As only a handful of critics anywhere have pointed out, Walker’s bill spares “essential” government employees–like cops, firemen, cops, and cops–from having their collective bargaining privileges rescinded. While Krugman speculates that Walker exempted such employees (though he himself refuses to name them!) because they typically vote Republican, it’s also possible that Wisconsin legislators are worried enough by the presence of unarmed picketers outside their homes. In New Jersey, however, Gov. Chris Christie is confronting the pension problems of state police head on; perhaps when Christie finishes, Gov. Walker could borrow his cajones.
4.) Wisconsin doctors hand out sick notes like candy on Halloween — “The physicians wore lab coats Saturday as they stood on a street corner and offered medical notes to the tens of thousands of protesters who paraded past them,” reports the AP. “Some people think it’s a nod-and-a-wink thing but it’s not,” one doctor, who works at a public university, told the AP. “One of the biggest stresses in life is the threat of loss of income, loss of job, loss of health insurance. People have actually been getting ill from this, or they can’t sleep.” According to the AP, the doctor “said his intent in signing notes was to perform a public service. He said that’s why he and his colleagues were stunned when they returned home Saturday night to find their e-mail inboxes filled with profane messages saying the doctors should be ashamed and should go to jail.” Yes, total surprise.
5.) Geithner: How can we grow the economy if we are not wasting peoples’ money? — Treasury Secretary Timmy Geithner said Saturday that the package of spending cuts the House passed last week would “undermine and damage our capacity to create jobs and expand the economy,” reports the Wall Street Journal. In the same breath, Geithner “pointed to the package of spending cuts and new spending programs the White House detailed in its budget proposal several days ago as the best way to both reduce deficits while still investing in economic growth.”
6.) To be a better number one, America should emulate number two (China) — That’s how transportation analyst Joel Kotkin describes Obama’s high-speed rail plan. But Kotkin adds that high-speed rail is not only a bad fit for the U.S., it’s a bad fit for the countries that use it now. “In China high-speed rail is so costly that the trains are too expensive for the average citizen. Furthermore, construction costs are so high the Chinese Academy of Sciences has already warned that its debts may not be payable. This experience with ballooning costs and far lower fare revenues have raised taxpayer obligations in Taiwan and Korea and added to heavily to the national debt in Japan.” If the aforementioned countries are failing to sustain their rail programs, Kotkin asks, “Why is Obama still so determined to push the high-speed boondoggle?” Look no further than “theology and money”: German rail giant Siemens, construction unions, investment bankers, big-city mayors, and property owners all want money; academics, ecofreaks, urban planners, and density advocates all want their dreams to come true.
VIDEO: Union member in Ohio screams expletives about Tea Party